Tutorial: DIY Bleached Dress

I wrote another DIY tutorial for my university newspaper, click through to The Saint to find out how to make this fabby bleach dress!

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DIY: Mess-free glitter shoes tutorial

I wrote this tutorial for my university newspaper, The Saint: click through to read how to DIY your own glitter shoes!

Tutorial: DIY lip scrub

This is a super easy and effective way to get lovely soft, smooth and moisturised lips using only three ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, and brown sugar!

Each of the ingredients used in this lip scrub has skincare superpowers: olive oil and coconut oil are both amazing natural moisturisers, and brown sugar is a fantastic gentle exfoliant.

1. Mash 2 tablespoons each of coconut oil and olive oil in a small bowl, until it creates this mushy sort of mixture.

2. Add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, and mix together until all the ingredients are combined, then transfer into a little pot (you can get these at Boots/Superdrug in the travel section).

To use, rub a small amount on your lips in circular motions, then rinse off.

You could also add a pinch of cinnamon or a couple of drops of lemon juice for a more enhanced flavour and smell!

Tutorial: Friendship bracelets

Friendship bracelets were all the rage when I was at primary school and they seem to have made a comeback lately, being popularised by Leandra Medine, aka The Man Repeller, and her ‘arm parties’ - stacks and stacks of brightly coloured and clashing bracelets heaped up as high as possible. Hugely influential Pinterest boards and Tumblr sites have fuelled this current trend, and with good reason: friendship bracelets are cheap and easy (if a little time consuming) to create, and can be made in a practically infinite number of patterns and colours. 

All you need to make your own friendship bracelets are embroidery thread, tape, and scissors.

1. Cut your embroidery threads into pieces approximately 55 inches long - you can use any colours you like, but if you’re just starting out then I’d suggest using four different colours so you can easily distinguish between the different threads.

2. Gather your threads together, fold them in half, then tie a knot an inch or so from the folded end. Tape the folded end to a stable surface and separate your threads into order, arranging them symmetrically.

3. To make a ‘left’ (or ‘forwards’) knot: take your outermost thread on the left hand side (mine was the yellow one) and make a ‘4’ shape over the next colour along. Loop it under and pull it through, then up and to the left to tighten the knot. Repeat on the same colour.

4. Make another left knot with the same original outermost thread over each colour until you reach the middle - remember that each left knot is made up of two 4-shape knots.

5. Now to make a ‘right’ (or ‘backwards’) knot: take your outermost thread on the right hand side and make a backwards 4 shape over the next colour along. Loop it under and pull it through, then up and to the right to tighten the knot. Repeat on the same colour.

6. Make another right knot with the same original outermost thread over each colour until you reach the middle. As you can tell, right knots are exactly the same as left knots, just in reverse. When both your original outermost threads have reached the middle, tie a simple knot to connect the two halves. Your first chevron is complete!

7. Now continue with the next colour, which will now be the new outermost strand, making sure you remember that each left knot and right knot is comprised of two 4-shape knots. 

8. When you’ve made enough chevrons to almost go right around your wrist, you can now finish off: separate the remaining threads into two sections and plait each section, finishing off with a knot at the end of each one. Tie the two plaits around the loop and your bracelet is finished!

Tutorial: Cream and gold ombre nails

The ombre trend seems to be showing no signs of abating, and one of my favourite ways to wear this trend is on nails! I've been wearing ombre nails for a couple of weeks now in various colours, but this delicate cream and gold version is my favourite - I consider it a sparklier version of a classic French manicure!

1. Collect your tools: cream nail varnish (Rimmel Lycra Pro French Ivory), gold nail varnish (Barry M Foil Effects), clear nail varnish (No. 7 Stay Perfect Top Coat), washing up sponge
2. Paint your whole nails in the cream nail varnish (mine is a couple of days old, hence the chips at the end!) and let them completely dry
3. Cut a small section off the end of your sponge, and paint the gold nail varnish directly onto it
4. Using the painted sponge, lightly dab along the bottom half of each nail to produce a stippled ombre effect. When completely dry, cover in a top coat or two

DIY: Storage built from Graze boxes

I've been receiving my weekly Graze box for a while now, and as I hate throwing cardboard boxes away I thought I'd come up with a way of transforming them into some useful storage!

1. Grab your empty Graze boxes! Open a box, and cut the lid off, then cut out the back section of the bottom part of the box - the section opposite the one with thumb hole dents in.

2. Fold down the edges of the lid part, and place it inside the bottom part. Make sure that you line the three edges of both the lid and the bottom part of the box together, to make an opening at the front. Tape down all the edges to make them secure.

3. Repeat these steps for as many boxes as you like (I chose three). Stack them on top of each other, making sure the openings are all facing the same way. Tape down all the edges.

4. Cut out some pieces of paper (I used self-printed brown paper, but you could use plain brown paper or wrapping paper or anything similar) about an inch bigger than each side of your stack of boxes all around. Cut out some strips to cover the visible parts of the openings at the front of the box too.

5. Cover each side of your stack of boxes in your paper. You could use double-sided sticky tape, clear tape, washi tape, or glue. I used clear tape to stick the paper to the box itself, then glued the paper down where any tape would be visible.

6. Cover the whole box and leave it to dry if you used glue. It's now ready to use! I use mine to store papers, bits of stationery and my phone when I'm at my desk.

I'll be coming up with a tutorial in a week or so which uses those little cardboard dividers than come inside Graze boxes, so make sure to keep those somewhere safe too!

Do you have any other ways to recycle Graze boxes?